What an office relocation actually costs — beyond the rent

When a company asks me what an office move costs, the number they usually hear from others is the removals quote. That is typically under 10% of the real figure.

I have worked through dozens of relocations in Bucharest, from eight-person teams to companies with more than 100 staff. The difference between a properly budgeted move and an improvised one is not the rent — it is the seven cost categories below, four of which are systematically forgotten.

1. Fitting out the new space

The largest cost, and the most underestimated.

Space handed over as a shell needs partitions, ceilings, flooring, electrical and data cabling, HVAC, lighting and finishes. In Bucharest in 2026, fit-out for a Class B office runs roughly 250 to 500 EUR/sqm, depending on how much you change.

Space that is already fitted out changes the equation entirely. The Domenii – Casin office, for example, offers 165 sqm already fitted out to a modern standard at 2,800 EUR/month — if the existing layout works for you, that saves between 40,000 and 80,000 EUR against a shell of the same size.

The right question to a landlord is not "what is the rent", but "what does handover include and who pays for the fit-out". Landlords frequently contribute to fit-out in exchange for a longer lease. It is the single best negotiation available to you.

2. The double-rent overlap

Almost nobody budgets for it, and almost everybody pays it.

Between signing the new lease and handing back the old space there is realistically a one-to-three month gap: fit-out, the move, and the notice period in your existing contract. Throughout that window you pay both rents.

For a 200 sqm office at 15 EUR/sqm, two months of overlap is 6,000 EUR that appears in no quotation.

It can be reduced by negotiating a rent-free period at the new address — an entirely standard ask that many tenants simply never make. On a three-to-five year lease, one to three rent-free months is normal.

3. The physical move

Removals company, packing, transport, dismantling and reassembling furniture. For a 20–30 person office in Bucharest, budget between 3,000 and 8,000 EUR, depending on volume and floor.

Adjacent costs most people forget:

• Moving and recommissioning servers and network
• Reconfiguring the phone system
• Transporting the physical archive — at long-established companies this can outweigh everything else
• Temporary storage, if the new space is not ready on time

4. Team downtime

The largest invisible cost.

A well-organised relocation means one to two days of disruption. A badly organised one means two weeks of reduced output. For a 25-person team at an average loaded cost of 3,000 EUR/month, a single lost day costs roughly 3,400 EUR.

You reduce it by moving over a weekend, migrating IT in advance, and keeping connectivity live at both addresses through the transition.

5. Deposits and advance payments

At signing, most landlords ask for a deposit equal to two or three months' rent, plus the first month in advance. For 200 sqm at 15 EUR/sqm that is 9,000–12,000 EUR tied up from day one.

The deposit on the old space does come back — but typically 30 to 60 days after handover, and after any reinstatement works are deducted.

6. Make-good (reinstatement)

The clause few people read at signing and everyone pays at the end.

Many leases oblige the tenant to return the space to its handover condition — removing the very partitions you built, redecorating, stripping out cabling. For a properly fitted-out space this can mean 20–50 EUR/sqm.

Check this clause in your existing lease before you build the relocation budget, not after.

7. Administrative costs

Individually small, collectively real: changing the registered office at the Trade Register, updating documents and materials carrying the address, signage, keys and access cards, reconnecting utilities and internet.

A worked example

A 25-person company moving from 200 sqm into 250 sqm that is partially fitted out:

Annual rent on the new space in this example is 45,000 EUR. The relocation costs more than the first year's rent.

Which is why a move only makes economic sense when the new space solves a real problem — not enough room, cost too high, wrong location — and not when it is merely nicer.

How to bring the number down

Look for space that is already fitted out. This is the single decision that removes tens of thousands of euros. Options like the Piața Unirii offices, where the 60 sqm module is 950 EUR/month with VAT and utilities included, remove both the fit-out and the unpredictable bills at once.

Negotiate rent-free months, not rent. Landlords concede free months more easily than headline rent, because the rent stays in the contract as a reference for the future. Two rent-free months on a three-year lease is worth more than a 5% rent reduction.

Take only the space you need. Modular space lets you adjust as you grow. The Bdul Basarabia – Republica offices let in modules from 27 to 110 sqm at 6 EUR/sqm plus 5.5 EUR/sqm utilities — a growing team can start small and expand inside the same building, avoiding a second relocation entirely.

For small teams, do not oversize. The small offices near Pache Protopopescu start at 12 sqm. For a three-to-five person firm, 40 sqm at 16 EUR/sqm costs less in total than 100 sqm at 10 EUR/sqm.

Before you start

Build the full budget before you view the first space. Otherwise you will be comparing rents when you should be comparing total cost over the life of the lease.

If it helps, I can build that comparison with you across two or three concrete options. You can browse the available office space or contact me directly.